Automobile door hinge



April s. B. ATWOOD 2,153,541

AUTOMOBILE DOOR HINGE Filed o tl so. 1937 16 2 I 5 2 4 a I i 20 a 21 z z Patented Apr. 1 1, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE y r 2,153,541 a AUTOMOBILE DoonnnvGE Seth B. Atwood, Rockford. m. Application October so, 1937, Serial No. 171,825

a claims. (01. 296-44) T'his invention relates to automobiles, and is particularly concerned with improvements in the door hinges.

The latest trends in have presented serious of the doors. outside curvatures for pleasing appearance and increased roominess within, entirely without reautomobile body design problems in the hi'nging gard to how this change in shape is to be taken bottom hinges of the door.

the amount of door throw required to bring the care of in the matter of hinging the doors. Usually with these designs there is considerable "turn-unde on the sides, that is, the belt line or mid-portion stands out appreciably from the lower portion. In such designs, if exposed pintle type hinges were used, the lower hinges would have to project to such an extent that one could not possibly use pintle hinges for the top and On the other hand,

edge of the door clear of the bulged exterior of the body is such that there wouldnt be room in the door pillar to accommodate the size of goose neck members that would be required if concealed hinges were to be used at the top and bottom of the door. It is therefore the principal object of my invention to provide as a practical compromise design'a combination of one pintle hinge projecting slightly from the body and one ball-and-socket hinge concealed within the body, the pintle axis being on a line through the center of the ball and socket of the other hinge, whereby to obtain the desired throw without any substantial or objectionable showing of hinges on the outside of the body, the short stubs projecting at the lower hinge locations be ing hardly noticeable, and by reason of their lower location, being not at all objectionable.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a side View of a portion of an automobile body, the door of which is shown equipped with hinges in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section through the body showing the door open and also showing the relationship of the hinging axis to the bulge of the body, and 1 Fig. 3 is a horizontal section through the concealed ball-and-socket hinge.

The same reference numerals are'applied to corresponding parts throughout the views.

The body 4 and door 5 provided for the door opening 6 in the body have corresponding convex curvature on the exterior thereof, there being a pronounced bulge in the vicinity of the midportion or belt line I with a proportionate 1n- Automobile bodies are being given ward curvature ortum-under in the lower portion 8, in keeping with the present body styling. Such shapes, unless referred to as streamlined,

are designed both for pleasing appearance and I increased passenger space inside the body. This curvature obviously requires increased door throw to bring the curved edge of the door clear of the curved outside of the body when the door is opened. Nam-obviously, if one were to use two pintle hinges for the top and bottom of the door, the hinges would have to project so far from the outside of the body that they would seriously detract from the appearance of the car and be 'totally out of harmony with the streamline design. On the other hand, the amount of door throw required is such that one cannot use concealed hinges because the pillars are not large enough in cross-section to afi'ord space therein for the size of gooseneck members that would be required. In I obtain the desired location of the door hinging axis a:z,l, shown in Figs. 1 and 2, by providing a concealed ball-and-socket hinge 9 for the upper hinge and a short stub form of exposed pintle hinge ill for the lower hinge. the hinge i0 is on the axis xy and the axis coincides with the center of the ball l2 in the socket l3 of the hinge 9. This fact is further illustrated in Fig. 3 in which the hinge Ill apbears in dotted lines beneath the hinge a with the pintle II and ball I! in vertical alignment on the axis :2:'y. With this combination of hinges, the axis x-y is located partly within and partly outside the body 4, as clearly appears in Fig. 2, and I am enabled to use a concealed type hinge 9, the gooseneck member i l of which is not too large to fit nicely within the confines of the pillar l5, and there is furthermore very little projection of the pintle hinge ill, so little in fact that it is hardly noticeable on the automobile, because of its lower location. Any attempt to use two concealed hinges would necessitate shifting the axis a:-y inwardly relative to the outside or, the body to such an extent that if the axis could be brought entirely inside the pillar IS, the size of gooseneck members M required would make the construction impractical, because there wouldn't be room enough in the pillar to accommodate these members.

The hinge 9 is similar to that shown in my application Serial No. 135,068, filed April 5,,193'7, and comprises the angular gooseneck member M with the ball head I! on one end and having its other end knurled, as at I i, and arranged to be clamped by a plate I! fastened to the door by accordance with my invention,

The pintle ll of stantially vertical, it may Ihe socket member ll of the hinge 9 sheet metal stampings Ill and screws I8. is made from two 2| of right-angle form to provide the socket l3 therebetween, half in the part 20 and the otherhalf in the part-2| with registering slots extending from the socket I! through which the gooseneck member ll extends for swinging movement through about 90. Bolts or screws 22 serve to fasten the socket member to the door pillar It. The construction of the socket member. I! is such that the gooseneck member I4 is free to swing through approximately 90 and; as appears .in' Fig. 2, the slot in socket member diameter of the gooseneck shank to allow appreciable adjustment of the angular ball-carrying end of the gooseneck without interfering with the swinging of the door to and from closed position.

In mounting the door 5 the ball and socket hinge 9 and pintle'hinge iii are, of course, first attached to the door and pillar. Inasmuch the pintle hinge I0 is not adjustable, save by bending, the ball and socket hinge 9 accommodates itself to its companion pintle hinge by the adjustability of the gooseneck member I4 which, as shown, is adjustable rotatably and endwise with respect to the clamping means I'I-l8 whereby to locate the ball head I! in the socket without any cramping of the hinge assembly. This adjustability of the ball and socket hinge 9 will, of course, be taken advantage of to a certain extent also in centering the door at least so far as the upper half thereof is concerned. Then if it is found necessary to bend the pintle hinge Ill to properly position the lower part'of the door, that can be done in the usual way, as by application of a forked tool to the projecting pintle carrying end of the hinge. Now, it is obvious that if the other hinge were a pintle hinge, and bending of the hinge l0 would destroy the alignment of pintles and create a cramped condition, but with the present invention, because the ball and socket hinge 8 provides point suspension, there is no cramping because the ball head l2 merely adjusts itself in the socket it to accommodate the deviation one way or the other of the pintle axis due to bending. In; other words, the-hinging warped, but nevertheless the door swings much more freely than it would if two or more pintle hinges were employed, because the universally adjustable hinge .9 can so readily adapt itself to the adjustment of the pintle hinge by reason of the fact that it provides point suspension and the point referred to determines the upper end of the hinging axis.

While I have shown an automobile body with pronounced turn-under" calling for the arrangement of hinges illustrated, it should, of course, be evident that a similar combination but with the hinges in the reverse relationship, that is, with the pintlehinge on top and the ball-andsocket hinge on the bottom, may be used on some bodies of other shape. However, most automobile bodies will conform to the present disclosure and use the arrangement of hinges as shown. Also, while the hinging axis :t-y is shown as subbe inclined outwardly or inwardly slightly from a true vertical, the pintle H in any case being on the axis passing through the center of the ball and socket of the other hinge.

suitably secured together I! is wide enough in relation to the an attaching end and a pair of hinges for axis might be described as It is believed the foregoing description conveys a good understanding of the objects and advantages of my invention The appended claims are drawn with a view to covering all legitimate modifications and adaptations.

I claim:

1. In an automobile construction, door and body portions having curved outside surfaces, said body portion including a hollow door pillar, a concealed type ball-and-socket hinge constituting one of a pair of hinges for hingedly mounting the door on the body, and a pintle hinge constituting the other of said pair, the former comprising a socket member mounted in the pillar, and a horizontal angular gooseneck member terminating at one end in a ball head swivelled in a socket provided in the socket member, the other end of the gooseneck member being having means for securing the same to the door for rotary and horizontal endwise adjustment thereof for vertical and horizontal adiustment of the ball head, the pintle hinge comprising hinge members fixed to the door pillar and door near the bottom thereof and pive otally connected by a pintle located outside the body on a hinging axis which passes through the center of the ball and socket or the first-mentioned hinge, the hinging axis being partly inside the body and partly outside the same.

2. In an automobile construction, door and body portions having curved outside surfaces, said body portion including a hollow door pillar, a concealed type ball-and-socket hinge constituting one of hingedly mounting the door on the body, and a pintle hinge constituting the other of said pair, the former comprising a socket member mounted in the pillar, and a horizontal angular gooseneck member terminating in a ball head swivelled in a socket provided in the socket member the gooseneck member being adjustably secured to the door for horizontal and vertical adjustment of the ball head, the pintle hinge comprising hinge members flxed to the door pillar and door in vertically spaced relation to the first hinge and pivotally connected by a pintle located outside the body on a hinging axis which passes through the center of the ball and socket of the first-mentioned hinge, the hinging axis being partly inside the body and partly outside the same.

3. A pair of hinges for mounting a door on a vehiclebody, one of said hinges being a pintle hinge comprising hinge members pivotally connected by a pintle and adapted to be secured to a door and body, and the other hinge comprising a socket member and a gooseneck member, one of which members is adapted to be secured to the door and the other to the body adjacent the door opening therein, the gooseneck member comprising a substantially horizontally disposed angular shankiwith a ball head on one end thereof operating in the socket of thesocket member with a swivel action, the other end of the shank being the attaching end, and means for securing the attaching end oi said shank to one of said door and body for rotary and horizontal endwise adjustment whereby to provide vertical and hori-- zontal adjustments respectively of the ball head thereof.

SETH B. A'I'WOOD. 

